26 Months so Some Cute Pictures

26 months have officially passed since last time Momma had a huge belly! I was organizing some pictures this morning and realized how many cute pictures I had not shared here recently. It is hard for me to find a good balance of frequency of blog posts. So today I thought I would post some back logged pictures from the last month and a run down of Mommy's big boy.

These two pictures are actually from last month when we where potty training. I am not sure why I didn't upload them then because they are some of my favorites of him! He was so sweet this day and cuddled with me a lot!!! He curled against my belly and just laid there for a while, I have this great memory and feeling when I look at these pictures, they are printed and in pink frames to take to the hospital for when I go into labor. They remind me of how exciting it will be to watch Lily and Johnny grow up together and how they will impact each others lives!

And he is just cute and happy here!

This is why Johnny is no longer allowed to eat in the car! That is an entire bag of Craisons! Which Johnny loves, but also thinks messes are super funny.

Johnny's favorite game is now anything to do with dinosaurs. At Grams and Pops house there are TONS of dinos and he can name most of them and knows what they do and even what some of them eat. He likes to chase the cat and some times his parents around the house with the bigger "sharp tooth" pretending that the dinosaur is eating us. Or he pretends to be a dinosaur running in circles roaring and calling out "I sharp tooth." I believe his favorite dinosaur is the triceratops, because likes to get the big one and little one so he can have a baby triceratops and a Mommy (or Daddy depending on his mood.) His favorite TV show is Dinosaur Train on PBS at 9 am (right before Sesame Street.) Mommy also loves this show since it focuses on the real names of the dinosaurs and what their real habits where. He picked up "sharp tooth" from Land Before Time which has become a special treat or for when he is sick.

Ella hasn't been coming over as much this month, stuff just keeps getting in the way of our visits. But this evening both girls had come over to play and Johnny and Ella where watching Super Why and apparently they are both really concerned about the show, and as usual adorable!

With Lily's arrival getting so close we have been trying to clean out the house and get rid of what ever we can. Johnny discovered an empty container and decided it was perfect for a hid out, notice the dinosaur in his hand....he doesn't do anything without at least one dinosaur in his hand.

More dinosaur play! The triceratops and sharp tooth where fighting for Mommy's entertainment. Oh and these tiny little dinos are all over the house, Johnny get excited every time he find one where he doesn't expect to.

For Mother's Day last week end the entire Dennison clan headed to the beach to spend some time together and celebrate Mommy's and Grams Birthday. I actually have a ton of pictures from that week end and need to do it's own post. We had a lot of fun playing in the water and riding rides on the boardwalk. But mostly we loved spending special time with our family. Wyatt is growing fast and since he lives in Ohio now we miss him all the time, but it makes these time even more special. Look at these boys, just nine months apart, I hope they grow up to be great friends!

Mommy is in her last month of pregnancy and there for we have a midwife appointment every week. Johnny has become a regular hit at the office, but still needs something to entertain him while Mommy and Lily get measured and checked. This last week it was this foot pop that Papa got Johnny at the beach. YUM!

In the past month Johnny's sleep has been a little off. He has been waking up early and not wanting to lay down for bed or naps, but he is super tired. We discovered a new tooth coming in in the front of his mouth where his gap it. The spot if not nearly big enough for any tooth and therefore the tooth is coming in the opposite direction that it should be coming it. It looks painful! We will be seeing a pediatric dentist soon!

Finally Johnny's poo has become solid again and lactose has been reintroduced (actually by accident) and he is handing it just fine! After nearly a fully month of diarrhea and stomach pains he seems to be back to his old self! But potty training is a long process, especially with the stomach flu back lash, and he still spends some of each day in just underwear. But every day does better and better! He is now pooping on the potty and on normal days has no big accidents and few leaks. However taking him too far outside of his comfort zone does lead to accidents, but that is part of learning!

Just this last week end our great friend Tara and her daughter Kat came down for a day long visit! We headed to the Maryland Faerie Festival for a few hours on Saturday. I felt for my manly boy who was all by himself amongst a ton of little girls in wings and frilly dresses. But he still had lots of fun, especially running through this tunnel and sharing a virgin Margaretta with Mommy. It was so much fun to get to see my old friend and how much her pretty little girl has grown!

Here is Johnny playing with little Kat. It was hard for Mommy to get good pictures of the two of them, one was always looking away or distracted! Though Johnny enjoyed the attention and fun of having a "new friend" and liked holding her hand in the car but he was taken aback by the sudden addition of Kat and her Mommy in our house. He also seems to have developed a completly normal fear of abandonment. He is starting to get upset when people he knows well leave or walk away. At the airport Mommy stepped of the car to help Tara and Tara put her backpack on the driver side seat, Johnny lost it. He really thought Mommy wasn't coming back and that he was leaving alone with a stranger! It broke my heart, but when I got back in the car he started laughing and talking about how funny he was and that he told a joke, as if he realized that Mommy would never leave him. It made Mommy and Daddy realize that right now Johnny needs some extra reassurance that we are here and some extra time just for him with Mommy and Daddy. He loved the three of us laying in Mommy and Daddy's bed yesterday tickling, reading books and focusing on him alone.



And as a special treat here is Johnny dancing! Daddy convinced Johnny to dance to Mommy's cleaning music.

38 Weeks Pregnant

Lily got this bow and a bunch of other really cute stuff from our friend in Georgia, Jennifer. I am so excited about this and I love it so so much!


The weeks seem like they are flying by, but I feel every second. Just two weeks until our due date, and she mine as well stay in there until then and give me more time to knit and clean. However, each day I am more uncomfortable (itchy belly, back pain, swollen ankles, random cramps, lack of sleep...), but that is pregnancy and you just have to live with it, because it is all worth it.

Our weekly appointment was yesterday and it was a little more intense then usual. I took Johnny alone, since Shawn had a big inspection at work, and the midwife was trying to figure out how big Lily is (she is big! and there is extra fluid with her) and felt what she thought was her head, up at the top of my belly and her heart beat about where my belly button is. So here we where again thinking that she was breach. The midwife discussed the fact that I am 38 weeks and we need to get her flipped ASAP! Our practice and hospital won't let a breached baby be born vaginally, let alone that mom go into labor naturally. So me and Johnny headed back down to Labor and Delivery for the second time in three weeks to have an ultrasound and figure out where this baby is. If she was breach again I was given the impression that we would be staying at the hospital and getting a doctor to do a manual flip (which is painful for me and can cause cord wrapping around baby's neck or even an emergency C if she went into distress,) right then and there and if they couldn't get her to flip we would be scheduling a c-section for next week! Thank god she is flipped, and they found her head immediately! nice and low! What this does mean is that she seems rather big. Her head is low, her heart beat is high, and her butt is so big everyone thinks it is her head! This week the panic over that took over most of the appointment, so next week I am going to talk more about her size and the extra fluid to see what that means, if anything.

This last week end we went outlet shopping at some outlets and I got squared away for labor! I got a new night gown to wear during labor, a new terrycloth wrap for after the tub, a new bath robe and new fuzzy flip flops....all in a very cool zebra print! I also got some comfy night gowns for after Lily is born and while we are still in the hospital. I will look great for the millions of pictures we will be taking and be comfy all the time! Our bags are packed and our plans are set, it is real and we are having a baby!

In the past few weeks we have been gathering everything Lily will need and getting some special items as well. This adorable tutu we got off of ebay and I love it. It is very poofy and professionally made, though it is hand made. She is going to wear this for her newborn pictures and Johnny is going to wear his tux!

This is just a winter coat that Grams got on clearance at Children's Place, but it really hit me as adorable. Everything is pink, EVERYWHERE!!!!

Fully Cooked, 37 Weeks

Well she can come out any time now! Of course Johnny stayed in for another 4 weeks, so chances are it may still be a little bit...but she is fully cooked and will only get fatter from her on out!

We are in the last of the last stretch and we are feeling it! Momma is increasingly uncomfortable. I can no longer sleep in the bed, I have to sleep on the couch, and I am up to pee 3-6 times a night. I am almost never hungry, but always have heartburn. My back hurts, my hands and feet swell constantly and I think I could just keep going on with these complaints.

We had a midwife appointment yesterday, since they are now weekly! It was a mostly positive appointment. Lily is still doing great! She favors my right side and seems to have settled there, her heart beat was "happy" and everything is still right on track. My group B strep test came back positive. Which isn't a big deal, but I do have to have two doses of antibiotic during labor to make sure the baby gets some and won't have any problems with the bacteria after she is born. We talked a lot about labor and the midwife answered a bunch of questions I had just about what to pack and expect, I am getting more and more excited about using the labor tub! Grams and I decided that the gowns they give you at the hospital are ugly, so we are looking for a night gown to wear during labor and delivery or maybe making one.

At this point Lily's room is ready for a baby to come and live, but the rest of the house is not to my new baby clean standard yet and we aren't fully packed for the hospital. This week end we are headed to the Beach with the rest of the Dennisons for a Mother's Day mini vacation! I am really excited to see Johnny playing in the water and sand. Once we get home on Monday I can pack our Hospital bags and be all set. Though I feel confident that Lily will stay in there until our due date, still three weeks away, it is a little scary and exciting to think that any moment of any day I could go into labor!

Feeding the Ducks

Daddy took a very long week end of leave for Mother's Day and today was the start! We started off with an unplanned trip to the duck pond in Bel Air (we also had a midwife appointment, but there will be more about that tomorrow.)

We had basically an entire loaf of bread and the ducks snatched it all up! We where swamped with ducks and geese. Johnny really enjoyed so many ducks, he kept yelling "see ducks" and bouncing around waving his arms while laughing. Where we nervous about letting him near some of the ducks who where very pushy about getting the bread, he even got nipped once, but didn't care!

We found a family of ducks with "baby ducks" and Johnny became attached to them. Daddy feed the big ducks so they would leave Johnny alone to feed the baby ducks.

He followed the baby ducks around throwing as much bread at them as he could.

But any animal that would come close enough to him would get some bread. But any time the pieces of bread didn't get directly to the birds he would pick it back up and carry it to the ducks to make sure every last crumb was eaten up.

Even when we ran out of bread Johnny wanted to get close to the ducks. He would pick up anything on the ground, including leaves and sticks, and try to get the ducks to eat them. He didn't chase the birds like he does the cat at home, he walked very slowly and carefully up to every duck just to see how close he could get. I am so glad we just decided to stop last minute and let Johnny "see ducks." It was wonderful to see him so happy and excited about something so simple, I have over 60 pictures!

He has more then enough energy to spare, however he is still having bad diarrhea that he can't control. I have a hard time believing that one spoonful of milk yesterday morning can cause two days of horrible poo, my poor baby!

Lactose Intolerance MIGHT not be Temporary

Poor Johnny boy still seems to have diarrhea after three weeks! Around 11 this morning he was playing like a good boy in his Yoda underwear one moment and the next moment all Mommy heard was a splash as he stood up and there was water like poo all over the floor and him. Poor baby had no idea what to do. After getting him on toilet it just kept coming and the poor thing was bent over with tummy cramps, so we called the doctor again. Though we where in there just last week for this exact same thing, all of his tests where negative, no fever and a ton of energy, we still couldn't explain why he was still having this problem.

For the past week we have been really careful about his diet, giving him only easily digestible food and no milk or lactose to try and let his system build back up. But this morning Mommy let him have less then a spoonful of milk when he asked for a bite of my cereal and three hours later his system was in chaos again. Our doctor says he is the picture of health (and was very impressed with how intelligent he is!) So our only working theory is that he might be lactose intolerant, more then just the common after stomach flu issues. For the next three weeks we are too let him eat a normal diet, but give him lactose free milk and yogurt. He can have anything else! I truly expected to walk out of this appointment with a very strict diet in hand, but this seems simple enough. Whole 100% lactose free milk and lets see what happens. We have to take him back in a month so our doctor can check his weight, since technically he lost 9 oz this past week, aside from that being perfectly okay for a child his size, that difference could just be the difference between cloths or scales. But weight lose can be a key sign of something more serious, which our doctor was very doubtful of since up until Mommy messed him up he was doing better every day.

Yesterday I felt like the greatest Mommy ever...Johnny had only one accident (poo) and stayed dry all day, he was such a good and gentle boy at Grams and Pops house and was listening so well. And I managed to get a ton of laundry done and both kids rooms really clean. But toady has not been as good.

Another Hair Cut

So this is a picture I took of Johnny this morning and it convinced us it was time for another hair cut (that and Johnny's constant head scratching lately.)

Daddy also needed a hair cut so we all went to the Military Barber Shop on post. Momma was very nervous about this hair cut, his hair was so pretty and long and the curls where coming back. I was so scared he was going to look like a little soldier, and the hair cut made Momma very anxious. But the barber was very good and took his time, even when Johnny's patience ran out, he wanted Johnny to look as good as possible.

He left it long in the front like I asked, which makes Johnny look a little like a teenager, but still really cute.

Here I asked Johnny to blow the dandelion for Momma, but he had already learned that took too much work, so he just pulled them off.

He is a big boy! So grown up.

We spent the day shopping and preparing for Mother's Day and Johnny stayed dry all day long! So we got him this special Dinosaur Growth chart, which he didn't understand but was very excited about it.

On May 2, 2010 my baby boy is just over three feet tall! I plan on going back and putting a couple more height markers from the past two years, he has grown so fast.

USO Free Sesame Street Show

Sesame Street is a big supporter of the military and military families. Every year they offer 4 free tickets to Sesame Place for every military family and they have teamed up with the USO to create a special Sesame Street series, Talk, Listen, Connect, to helper younger kids deal with deployments and everything that comes with them.

May is the month of the Military Child and APG kicked it off with a free Sesame Street Live mini show here on post. It was only 45 mins long (which we thought was a perfect amount of time.) Cookie Monster, Grover, Rosetta, Zoe, and Elmo came and sang songs and played games for the kids. I was so nervous that they where going to do the Elmo's Daddy has to go away story line. For some reason (I blame pregnancy hormones) I was super emotional and started crying when they even mentioned it at the beginning. But thankfully it was just songs about being happy and making music.

Every kid that walked in the door was given one of these Elmo light up spiny toys, at the Sesame Street Live show they are at least $10 a piece. Johnny was very excited, especially after Mommy showed him how to make it work.

I think Daddy was excited too. Johnny is really starting to look even more like his Daddy!

We took Uncle Tommy, Aunt Natalie, Ella and Sammi. Sammi really enjoyed the show more then we thought she would. She watched the characters dance and smiled really big the entire time....and oh isn't she cute?

Ella sporting her USO bandanna and wishing that Abby Cadabby was part of the cast...sorry Ella.


As the characters came out everyone cheered for their favorite, of course we tried to get Johnny to yell and bounce for Elmo, but he tensed up, he was so excited and didn't know what to do with himself. Also it was near 90 degrees yesterday when we discovered that he has no short sleeve Elmo shirts! Aren't we bad parents!

He couldn't sit still, it was all so over whelming.

Sammi loved it when her Mommy made her dance.

Johnny loved it the most too when he was allowed to dance in the isle. But it didn't last long, since some parents started to rush the stage with their kids and where running frantically down the isles.

It was a nice experience that I think Johnny really enjoyed! I really love that Sesame Street and the USO went above and beyond to do this show here on our base. Makes you proud to be a military family.